Welcome to
Berkeley. We’re sending you something that you don’t need to figure
out, fill out, or even respond to. Every summer, we send new UC
Berkeley freshmen a list of books suggested by various people on
campus. This is not an “official” list, or even a list of required
reading. It’s just for you to enjoy as you wish.

Borrowing from
Professor Richard Muller’s popular course, “Physics for Future
Presidents,” this year we have chosen the topic “Books for Future
Presidents.” We have asked faculty from all over campus to recommend
books that future leaders of any group—countries, cities, companies,
organizations, community groups—should be sure to read. You’ll see
that the suggestions range widely: history, poetry, fiction, hints
for travelers, to name a few. There is surely a title on this list
that you’ll enjoy reading. You may find them in bookstores, and all
are available in the Berkeley campus libraries.

We hope you’ll
choose one of these books to read this summer, as a reminder that UC
Berkeley is a vital intellectual community that generates and
debates fascinating and important ideas.

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the
Twenty-first CenturyThomas L. FriedmanNew York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005

Although the
message can be boiled down into fewer pages, a future President
should understand that technology has created the opportunity for
anyone in the world to perform tasks that used to be limited by
geography. It sounds good for the world; is it good for the U.S.? We
are the leader in offshoring. Despite information technology being
one of the popular targets, IT jobs and salaries have actually
increased. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have more
jobs in IT than in the height of the dot.com boom and IT salaries
have grown 8% annually as compared to an annual increase of 2% in
the consumer price index. The continued creation of new industries
and new jobs depends on innovation. Given the greater competition, a
future President should know that benefits to society of investing
in research for science and engineering generally—and IT
specifically—are at least as important for the 21st century as they
have proven to be in the 20th century.

Dave
PattersonPardee Professor of Computer Science

The Year of Magical ThinkingJoan DidionNew
York: Knopf, 2005

This is a
wonderful meditation on loss and grief, but also on a
forty-year-long relationship between a man and a woman who spent
hardly a day outside of each other's company. It is also a superb
illustration of a gifted writer's way with words, style that is so
limpid that it seems effortless, no style at all. Clarity of thought
and expression are hallmarks of good prose. A president needs to
express himself—or herself—well and, more importantly, needs to
recognize and reward clarity of thought and expression in the words
of others.

This is the
greatest Russian novel of the 20th century and one of the six or
seven greatest works of fiction of the century in the Western canon.
In my humble opinion, this work is the single best exposition of the
problem of totalitarianism and I think that the most important idea
of the century is man as an individual and the role of the
state.

Gifford
CombsCouncil of The Friends of the Bancroft
Library

RoseLi-Young
LeeBrockport, NY: BOA Editions, 1986

Rose,
the debut book of poetry by Li-Young Lee, reveals the beauty in
everyday life and the importance of coming to terms with our past.
In each beautifully crafted poem, Lee uses concrete images—a rose, a
peach, an apple—to evoke a wide range of emotions linked to
heritage, culture, family, love, and loss. Many of Lee's poems
express the narrator's complex and intimate relationship with his
parents—especially his father. Keenly observant, the narrator learns
about and from his parents and in the process comes to understand
himself better. With simple and lyrical language, Lee invites us to
take time to devour peaches, "from laden boughs, from hands,/from
sweet fellowship in the bins" and "take what we love inside/…as if
death were nowhere in the background." Future leaders should heed
Lee's advice and stop to observe and enjoy that which in haste we
often bypass. If only leaders read more poetry and fewer executive
memos, the world would be a different—and I suspect
better—place.

Luisa
GiulianettiAssistant Director, Student Learning
Center

The Moral SenseJames Q.
WilsonNew York: Free Press, 1993

This
provocative book is a must read for anyone concerned about ethical
conduct in both the public and private sectors.

Jim
SpitzeCouncil of The Friends of the Bancroft
Library

A Short History of Nearly
EverythingBill BrysonNew York: Broadway Books,
2003

Bill Bryson’s
books exemplify summer reading; they are pure, unadulterated
pleasure. One has to stop frequently to read aloud sections to
whomever is around, not just to share the fun, but also to explain
one’s uncontrollable laughing. However, this book goes far further.
Without compromising his inimitable style, Bryson presents an
unbelievably well-researched account of science and its discovery.
He conveys pure wonder about the universe and its working, and
introduces the reader to many of the idiosyncrasies and quirks of
some of the giants of the technical world. Every well-educated
person (including future presidents) should have some big-picture
idea of this material, and I cannot imagine it being presented in a
more enjoyable form.

Why? First, it
lays out—in timeless fashion—the tensions and tradeoffs leaders
(and their followers) face around the exercise of authority vs.
obedience to higher moral principles. Second, it does so in the
context of a struggle between maintaining order and security in
civil society, while preserving fundamental notions of justice and
honor. Third, it probes the perils of pride and arrogance by leaders
who easily confuse their will and power with what's best for their
state. (King Lear would be an alternate choice.) And fourth,
it's short.

John
DannerLecturer, Haas School of Business

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham
LincolnDoris Kearns GoodwinNew York: Simon & Schuster,
2005

A wonderful
analysis of why Lincoln was our greatest president, and a striking
illustration of the old adage, "Keep your friends close and your
enemies closer."

This readable
little book is a diamond: sparkling compressed wisdom, with perfect
clarity and entertaining color. It will change how you read the
newspaper forever. It has no formulae, but equips you to see through
misleading ways of collecting and presenting quantitative evidence.
And, Madame President-to-be, it is a how-to manual for spin
doctors.

Philip Stark
Professor, Statistics

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of
BalanceLaurie GarrettNew York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1994

Despite the
optimism of the sixties it is clear now that infectious diseases
will continue to cause widespread death and suffering both in the
developing and the developed world. As this book explains we hold in
our hands the ability to change this. Written by Pulitzer Prize
winning author Laurie Garrett, this book is also a great example of
how science and journalism can be successfully combined. The story
is not oversimplified but presented clearly in a thoroughly well
researched and documented way with over one hundred pages of notes
and references. Despite the length this book is always readable and
more gripping than many novels. Although it predates SARS, West Nile
virus, and the recent avian flu events it is still the definitive
work describing how diseases are affected by our actions and what we
can do to change this.

John
LattoLecturer, Environmental Sciences and Integrative
Biology

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent
FaithJon KrakauerNew York: Doubleday, 2003

Given the
importance of faith and religion in contemporary politics, both
domestically and internationally, Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner
of Heaven couldn't be more appropriate for the theme of "Future
Presidents." Krakauer provides a well-researched historical overview
of the fastest growing religion in the Western Hemisphere,
Mormonism, while simultaneously telling a riveting story of a
religiously inspired double murder. Not only do readers gain insight
into how and why fundamentalist sects develop from a given religion,
but they also come to understand that religious fundamentalism is
not merely limited to specific religions (e.g., Islamic
fundamentalism) or underdeveloped regions of the world, but exists
today in the American heartland.

A beautifully
written study of the relationship of slavery to democracy. Although
it is about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in America, it
has a relevance to our own concerns today.

Robert
MiddlekauffPreston Hotchkis Professor of American History,
Emeritus

Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: How To Do Business in Sixty
CountriesTerri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway, and George A.
BordenHolbrook, MA: B. Adams, 1994

This book has a
few pages on most countries in the world that one would visit, for
business or pleasure, and tells you about the social rules so that
you know how to behave. Great for a traveling business person, a
student on summer vacation or a year abroad, and of course, a
president.